Hello David,
Welcome to the forum.
As always the test of time is a good indication as to the success of a product for an individual, throughout my life there have been various things that I have picked up with the sincere intention of putting effort into, but after a short while they have been left. Some music books I’m afraid have shared the same fate, I start them with enthusiasm and hope that what they promise will rub off on me but they soon get left on the shelf. Your book ‘Perfecting Intonation’ thankfully has not been one of those and has been incorporated into my daily practice sessions since the day I got it.
I’d be very grateful if you would advise me on how to incorporate it into my practice sessions to gain the most from it. Unlike a math’s book where having finished one book you move on to the next one, I feel your book like Pete’s
'Taming the Saxophone 3' will be used time and time again as there will always be something new to be learned or skills to be developed. But that can leave the student wondering how best to make use of such a book.
My approach thus far has been to familiarise myself with your book and the exercises by trying to fit in two exercises into each practice session and so I have been progressing from exercise to exercise through the book. This has had the advantage of illustrating just how flexible my tuning has to be, it really has been quite an eye opener, and I hope has started my early development in being able to play more in tune, certainly I’m noticing when I’m out!
For example, would you recommend ‘perfecting’ each exercise before moving on? Or have a more fluid approach, for example there are 12 tracks and for each track there are 5 exercises I could progress through each track concentrating on just the first exercise and then once completed go through each track again and work just the second exercises and so on until I’ve finished and then start again.
The other idea I had was to concentrate on just one track and keep rotating through the five exercises until I became reasonably proficient at keeping in tune before moving onto the next track.
Any thoughts as to the best approach would be gratefully received.
Best wishes,
Chris